Pick out the 50 best places on a continent, assign a writer to describe them and provide visiting information, compile a bunch of great color photographs and, voila, you have two books every traveler would want to own.

Barron's has just released a pair of 224-page books, titled "Traveler's Atlas: North America'' by Donna Dailey and Traveler's Atlas: Europe" by Mike Gerrard.

The cover prices are $29.99, but it's easy beat the price even on the Barron's Web site (barrons.edu) or at amazon.com.

The Europe book, predictably, has four pages on Paris, Rome and Venice. It better describe those cities, because no "50 best list'' of Europe would be complete without them.

But it also introduces readers to some places they are most likely less familiar with, including Poland's Bialowieza Forest, the Jerez region of Spain and the River Douro of Portugal.

And what might you find there? The Polish forest harbors a rare herd of European bison, Jerez is famous for its sherry wines and the River Douro is where Portugal creates the drink that makes the country famous, port.

While we all dream about European vacations, but reality means that Oregonians travel more closer to home in Western North America.

And what does the "Traveler's Atlas: North America" tell us about things close to home?

The book covers the obvious, Utah's Canyonlands, Alberta's Banff and California's Yosemite.

Oregon got shut out, without a mention, but do we really want Barron's telling the world how beautiful things are here? I had hopes for Oregon when I looked at the chapter on the Pacific Coast Highway, but it focused on the section between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver, B.C., gets a chapter, as does Washington's Olympic National Park. A bit farther afield, Alaska scores with chapters on its mountains, highway and glaciers.

While these types of books are beautiful and entertaining, they always seem to reveal the flaw in the creative system that designs them. How can you limit beautiful places in North America or Europe to just 50?

And why did they put the map locator dot for the California redwoods in Sequoia National Park (where the giant sequoias grow) instead of Redwood National and State Parks (where the redwoods grow)?

Or, how about this? How can you run a photo of Washington's Mount Shuksan on the title page of the North America book, without listing the North Cascades as one of the 50 great places.

Oh well, I've taken that same photo of Mount Shuksan myself. So have so many others who have driven to the end of the Mount Baker Scenic Highway.

But it sure is nice to see other photos I have not yet taken, including Michigan's Straits of Mackinac Bridge, the Chicago skyline and the streets of Mexico's San Miguel de Allende.

(The books were published by Quarto Books of London and released in North America by Barron's.)